Canada Food Inspection Agency officers seized electronic devices and stored data from raw milk activist Michael Schmidt’s Glencolton Farms Thursday as part of a federal investigation into the illegal removal of sheep that were under quarantine near Peterborough before they could be euthanized this spring.
CFIA issued a brief statement Friday confirming only that it executed search warrants “related to the ongoing investigation into the April 2nd removal of 31 sheep from a farm in Eastern Ontario, breaching a federal quarantine that was in place due to risk of a disease called scrapie.”
Schmidt acted as a spokesman for the so-far anonymous Farmers’ Peace Corp. earlier this year, after it took responsibility for taking the animals into “protective custody.”
He said in an interview Friday he received an anonymous request to do so, then corresponded over the Internet and never in person with the group. He said he doesn’t know the identity of its members.
Schmidt was an outspoken critic of the CFIA mandate to kill the animals even before the Farmers Peace Corp. approached him. He said an alternative to eradication of this heritage animal must be found.
“They think that I conspired, that I am spearheading the Farmers’ Peace Corp.,” he said.
“I am simply a liaison. I was approached by the Farmers’ Peace Corp . . . because I am so outspoken. . .”
Schmidt said the CFIA executed warrants in connection with his farm, a nearby farmhouse he rents out, as well as Linda “Montana” Jones, who owned the sheep in question, and a man Schmidt said is linked to the Chesley-area farm where some of the sheep were eventually found.
Northumberland OPP acting Staff-Sgt. Phil Pike said Friday in an interview there were four raids and police only came along to keep the peace.
Jones’ farm is within his OPP jurisdiction. Pike said he believes the OPP is still investigating the removal of the quarantined sheep.
But Jones, who said she posted a picture of herself and Schmidt on her website, shropshiresheep.org on Friday, confirmed in an interview the CFIA had taken documents and other information from her Thursday, including “doodles, calendars, personal letters.”
Her description of the warrant, of which she had a copy, was similar to Schmidt’s.
Jones said she was told by a CFIA investigator Thursday during the search that charges were pending against her of obstructing an inspector and causing a quarantined animal to be moved. Asked if she had anything to do about the missing animals, she said, “No, they were not, no I wasn’t.”
She said a CFIA inspector told her on a previous visit to her farm that she could face “years” in jail.
Jones first made national headlines after protesting the CFIA’s plans to destroy the sheep from her farm. Jones’ herd was quarantined in 2010 after scrapie was discovered in one sheep that the CFIA said was born at her Wholearth Farmstudio and sold to a farm in Alberta.
Jones said she does not believe that sheep had scrapie and the CFIA has not provided samples of the animal to be independently tested.
“I don’t think what they’ve done is right and I think more people need to know about it. So I have no worries about going to court,” Jones said.
She said there are fewer than 100 of the heritage, purebred Shropshire sheep in Canada, though in pioneer times they were favoured by farmers in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. She’s trying to propagate the once-dominant breed again.
The story of the missing Shropshire sheep east of Peterborough drew national media attention when Jones reported 31 of the sheep were stolen. A note left in the barn from a group calling itself the Farmers’ Peace Corp. said the sheep had been taken into “protective custody.” The note said the sheep had been taken without the knowledge or participation of the owner.
The sheep had been due to be removed and euthanized.
Tests later found the recovered sheep did not carry the neurological disease, which poses no threat to humans. The CFIA has an eradication program for animals suspected of carrying this disease. Animals must be destroyed to find out if scrapie is present.